MPC X, MPC Live, MPC One & MPC Key 61 Forum: Support and discussion for the MPC X, MPC Live, MPC Live II, MPC One & MPC Key 61; Akai's current generation of standalone MPCs.
By Moho Sat Sep 09, 2017 11:28 am
Here's a big time saving trick,
When starting a session I go to the sampling page and turn on monitoring, now you don't have to mess about in the audio tracks page turning monitoring on or off and choosing which setting. :-D
By Yorgos Arabatzis Sun Sep 10, 2017 3:53 pm
You all know that there's no REC/Automation option inside Track Mute menu and there's no way to Mute tracks and at the same time automate Q-Links...Although it's a wonderful feature request (hear..hear..AKAI) a poor man's workaround at this point is to enable automation in main screen (W) and while in Track Mute menu Hold Q-Link button and move the knob you want to automate.Bam!Automation inside Track Mutes!
@MPC-Tutor
My guess is that this thread will go over the 6 tips and while it's sticky you should rename it as "The Tips & Tricks Thread" or whatever you think it's a good representation of it..
By summer2k Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:12 pm
Yorgos Arabatzis wrote:Same goes for any other Shift+secondary option menu :wink:
Mia.Mikel wrote:If you push (fast) two times the Note Repeat button you get the same results as you push SHIFT + REPEAT.
So its faster because you use only one finger :worthy:

Cheers

Michael


Good find guys. Looks like I'll rarely use the SHIFT button now. :nod:
By Yorgos Arabatzis Mon Oct 16, 2017 9:05 am
“A must tip for everyone to avoid digital clipping”

Check you main out levels...I always set programs levels to -12db so i won’t hit red on my mains..Crank your hardware level knob to the max and set your program levels from -9 to -12db (differs from song to song).There’s nothing worse than digital clipping so keeping your main out levels out of the red zone it’s always the best practice...You can boost your signal afterwards inside your DAW with that special master chain you got ;-)
By Yorgos Arabatzis Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:13 pm
A wonderful tutorial about MPC Live sampling courtesy of Mr. Sam Haskin:

-I basically set up 4 midi tracks and four audio tracks that all point to the same piece of hardware
 
-each midi/audio track pair is basically for it's own velocity layer
 
-on each track I have the notes I want to sample drawn out as long as makes sense based on the sample.
 
-if it's a plucky instrument, shorter notes. if it has full sustain, about a bar or two
 
-so say I want to sample two notes per octave -- on each midi track I'll place notes at c and f# starting at c-1 and going up to say, c3 or f#3
 
-some instruments make sense to do more than 2 per octave--bass guitars tend to have more variation within an octave than most synths, so maybe do 4 notes per octave in that case
 
-but most synth patches you're ok at 2
 
-so in each track, set the velocity based on the layer. since the MPC only gives you 4 layers, it makes sense to make the velocities in increments of 32 or 33
 
-where in the scale to do that kind of depends on the patch
 
-so if it's really touchy, maybe split it out starting at 16 for your lowest layer, sometimes you start at 0, sometimes 32. whatever sounds best and gets you the most range
 
-it helps to copy the midi clip from track to track, then adjust the velocity for the entire clip. that way each velocity layer has the same timing
 
-then line all 4 audio clips up in parallel in 4 audio tracks
 
-now this is where I don't know if live works the same way as logic, but…
 
-you set a looped region around the first note and export just the looped region, but have it export the tracks separately like you're creating stems
 
-if you have your audio tracks labeled with it's associated velocity that should come out in the bounced files
 
-so I'll get 4 files: "c-1 v= 32", "c-1 v=64", "c-1 v=96" and "c-1 v=127”
 
-worst case you just add a step to name the files as it happens and you do that for each note you want to sample
 
-so c-1, f#-1, c0, f#0 and so on
-so coming out of that process you should have a sample for each note and each velocity level
 
-now crack open the MPC
 
-either standalone or controller mode
 
-controller is slightly easier, but not horrible in standalone
 
-the only part that's different really is importing the samples
 
-in controller, you can just drag them all in together, in standalone you have to add them separately
 
-so either way, get all the samples you just made into the sample pool
 
-yeah, there's a little panel that lists out all of the samples in your pool
 
-you just drag it from the finder into that

Image

-the guy on the right
 
-from here it's actually easier to do it all on the hardware, either standalone or controller
 
-so create a new track and select keygroup
 
-then menu -> program edit
 
-then click on the samples tab
 
-oops, one thing first
 
-in the master tab
 
-in the top bar you have to set the number of keygroups--basically the number of notes you sampled
 
-so if you did 2 notes per octave for 3 octaves, that's 6 keygroups
 
-key groups are basically the the range of keys that a sample will be chromatically applied to
 
-so for the C samples, they apply to c-f of whatever octave you're in and the f# samples apply to f#-b of whatever octave
 
-you can see the KG select menu on the master tab
 
-the trick is basically setting up each keygroup
 
-so you'll go through the same process for each note you sampled
 
-but for each key group you then want to go to the samples tab
 
-in the samples tab you load each velocity layer from lowest to highest
 
-so once those are loaded you go to the pan/velocity tab
 
-on that tab you set the start and end velocities for each sample
 
-so the first one is 0-32, second gets 33-64, etc
 
-then you set the root note to the actual note of the sample
 
-the you repeat that for each keygroup
 
-THEN once you've got all of your keygroups loaded and sounding right on the scale, you go to the filter/env tab
 
 
-in the top bar where it lets you select keygroup, select ALL, so you're affecting the envelopes of all of them together
 
-and from there, tweak the envelope to taste
 
-and that should be it, then from the software you go to the upper menu and click file -> save current program
By MeProd Tue Jan 02, 2018 12:59 pm
when you want pin the 'don't snap' function, you can do that with the f-key and then press menu, which will then correspond to the don't snap button on the touch screen (MPC X, don't know if this will work on the live)
By marctronixx Mon Jan 29, 2018 1:14 am
if you have a logitech wireless keyboard that uses the little unifying usb dongle thingy, you can use this on the X/live. i had one of these lying around. it allows me to enter names much faster.
By Yorgos Arabatzis Tue Mar 13, 2018 4:16 pm
Ever wanted to switch back and forth from a clip program to a drum program and your clips keep looping?Until AKAI implements it properly a poor man’s workaround is this:
In a clip program hit the pad you want to keep looping and then Menu -> Sample Edit -> Enable Loop mode inside Trim menu -> Main -> Edit Clips -> Switch to another sample and again back to the one you had and voila!!!...That’s it!
Now you can keep looping without any distractions!

Cheers :-D